1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a skin cooling device which utilizes the sensory ability of the skin as an integumentary sense organ so that it is applicable to medical treatments and surgical operations, and more particularly to a skin cooling device which is configured to use the heat absorbing effect of a thermoelectric element while having a small size to be easily handled.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cooling the human body makes it possible to obtain various effects such as alleviation of pain, constriction of blood vessels, and suppression of inflammatory reaction. Although appliances for generating such a cooling effect have been proposed, they are used only in limited fields, due to diverse reasons.
For example, cooling devices have been proposed which are applied to a skin cooling method for medical treatment of skin troubles or medical treatment using a laser. In the case of a cooling device applied to medical treatment of skin troubles, it is configured to use heat of vaporization generated during vaporization of liquid nitrogen. However, this cooling device has a disadvantage in that it cannot be easily handled under general surgical operation conditions because of its complex configuration. In the cooling device, it is also difficult to achieve an easy temperature control. Furthermore, there is inconvenience in use because the use time is limited due to the vaporization rate of the liquid nitrogen. On the other hand, in the case of a cooling device applied to medical treatment using a laser, it is configured to apply cold air, supplied from a cooling unit via a tube, to a body portion to be surgically operated. However, this cooling device is bulky and expensive. Furthermore, there is inconvenience in that the cooling device has a low cooling speed.
For this reason, the above mentioned cooling devices have been used in very limited fields, for example, only in surgical operation fields. In particular, these cooling devices cannot achieve easy cooling of a very small area of skin. Since the conventional cooling devices are configured to utilize a compressed refrigerant or heat of vaporization, their configurations are complex. As a result, these cooling devices are very inconvenient to use for medical treatment and surgical operation purposes.